A Book of a Different Color

Life!

2017-08-01T09:25:00.001-07:00

It has been a hot second since I've updated this blog. Okay, actually a lot longer than that. The picture on here is still my graduation photo from law school and that was SEVEN YEARS AGO! Outdated, yes, but it is a great photo so I'm leaving it. I don't even practice as an attorney anymore, but still use my degree daily, thank you very much.

Life has changed immeasurably. I have a beautiful daughter now and she takes up the vast majority of my time. I have a wonderful new job that I adore because I get to work from home. And, yes, I really do work hard even though it is from my stand-up desk in our office instead of downtown. Life is grand and I have a lot more time to read than I thought despite the lack of train commute.

I set a reading goal this year for 24 books based on my dismal total last year. I thought I would have a lot more time to read with a newborn, which was not my reality. I've already blown this years' goal out of the water with 40 books and I'm trending toward 60. A solid total.

I'm looking forward to using some time to reflect on my reads this year. They have been varied and interesting and I'm sure my sweet husband would rather I talk about them on here than to him. "Jill, I don't want to hear about the bee book anymore!" You know how it goes.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

2017-08-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Book: City of Thieves

Author: David Benioff

Grade: A

Recommended To: WWII fans, Egg Lovers.

My friend recommended this book and it was a great rec! In sum, this is the story of two young men who are asked to go on an adventure to locate a dozen eggs in wartime Russia so that a Corporal can make a wedding cake for his daughter. This leads them through the icy war-time Russia and includes lots of adventure and intrigue along the way.

I thought this book was a completely unexpected joy. I read a lot of books on my Kindle and typically forget what I read on Amazon as the excerpt or I don't bother to look it up, since there isn't a book jacket with the description. This leads to a lot of surprises and this book was one of those. I had no idea what to expect when I read this and the twists and turns were actually surprising.

I read a lot of fiction about WWII but have read very little about the attack on Russia by the German forces. This lack of knowledge kept the book interesting.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fairly quick read and an intriguing one, at that.

Happy New Year! 2015!

2015-01-02T09:51:00.003-08:00

Happy 2015!

I am so pleased that it is the new year. I took a few days off work and I feel very refreshed and ready for all of the new challenges and joys that 2015 will bring.

I also love reflecting on all of the books that I read in 2015, so here goes!

In 2015, I read 60 books and a total of 21,392 pages. This was 10 books short of my reading goal and I attribute this to watching more TV and having zero reading time on the weekends because we got a new kitchen! That means that we spent 6 months of weekends working on the house instead of reading.

Longest Book:  NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Honestly, not great, it was a long 642 pages.

Shortest Book:  The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin at 132 pages.

Most Disappointing Book:  Revival by Stephen King. I always have super high expectations for Stephen King and Revival just didn't do it for me. It was loose, felt like it was written too quickly and was a long rambling novel that I just couldn't get behind. Still, I gave it 3/5 stars.

Also disappointing was The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenberg. This was rated one of the best books of the year on Goodreads, but my god, it was awful. So much passive voice in this book. This is my biggest pet peeve. I wanted to edit this book for Mr. Rosenberg and I was highly disappointed.

Most Rewarding Book: Soy Sauce for Beginners by Kirstin Chen. This book was beautiful. It sent me on a search for real-brewed soy sauce and it made me crave good Asian food.

Worst Book: The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch. This was the last book in the Wayward Pines series and it was incredibly disappointing. I hated the ending and hated how Blake kept us all waiting for a crap book. It is very highly rated on Goodreads, a full 4.14 points, but I gave it 1/5 stars.

Best Non-Fiction: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I recommend this book to almost everyone I know. It was by far the best non-fiction book that I've read in years. The tension was palpable and I loved learning about crew and rowing.

Funniest Book:  This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. This book was relatively funny, but after reviewing my books for 2014, I realized that I didn't read very many memorable funny books this year. I definitely need to change this in 2015.

Favorite Book: Toss up between The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters and Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I have been recommending these books to people all year, or in the case of The Paying Guests, since I finished it in early December. They are both outstanding reads.

Best Rated on Goodreads: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This was not the best book that I read this year, but it was certainly a five star.

Worst Rated on Goodreads: The Hit by Melvin Burgess. Not surprising. This book was so so bad. See my review here.

I set some goals for 2014 and here's how they panned out:

1. Read 70 books. I fell short by 10 books! Yikes!

2. Alternatively, read 30,000 pages. I needed about 10,000 pages to fulfill this goal. Whoops!

3. Post to this blog 30 times. Let's get out of this 27 slump nice and easy. Eek. Also a fail. I posted exactly 6 times.

4. Continue my One-Line a day journal. I love keeping records of my day to day and I hope this journal will help me do it. I did this until approximately May. That's pretty good for a NY Resolution!

5. Actually read the books that I buy. My to-read shelf is bigger than the shelves of books that I've read. I am going to try to buy fewer books this year, get more books from the library (FREE), and make a dent in the to-read pile. I mostly achieved this goal too! I stopped buying books on the Kindle Daily Deal because they became sort of a toss up, and got more books from the library. Nothing beats holding (and smelling) a physical book!

I love making goals and I try to do them yearly, monthly, and on my birthday. I am turning 30 this year, so I'm also working on my "Before I'm 30 Bucket List."

My goals for 2015 are varied. My hubs and I have several financial goals that I will not bore you with here, but one includes a trip to Italy for our 30th birthdays! I want to run a 5k with my mother. I want to work hard to make my billable hours at work. I want to landscape my yard in the spring, build a dining room table (amish style), and finish the last remaining kitchen projects.

My reading goals are:

1. Update this blog! I'm certain I've lost loads of readership due to my general lack of updating, but I should at least be able to double my 2014 entries. 12 seems doable!

2. Continue to rent books from the library.

3. Read 62 Books - See what I did there? I upped my 2014 total by two! I hope to crush this goal.

Do you have any reading goals for 2015?

Happy 2015!! I hope your year is full of life, love, laughter and fabulous books.

In Sickness and In Hell by Stefan Barkow

2014-09-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Book: In Sickness and In Hell

Author: Stefan Barkow

Grade: B

Recommended To: Philosophers, People who like a creepy story. Perfect for Halloween.

This book is now available for purchase at: Amazon.com

I enjoyed this freshman effort by Barkow.* In Sickness and in Hell is a collection of short stories that included themes ranging from forgiveness, to the supernatural.

I liked the vast majority of the stories in this book. There were a few that seemed a little over my head and comprehension, but that's not to say that they were bad, just a little too thoughtful for a train ride home.

The absolute best part of this book is Barkow's writing. It is excellent. He has a strong gift for creating scenes and characters in a very short format. Short stories are hard to write because so much must be conveyed in small number of pages and Barkow does this exceedingly well. He is also very good at writing dialogue. One of my biggest pet peeves in books is dialogue that is chunky and detracts from the story; not true in Barkow's work. The dialogue adds to and supports the stories so well that I found myself marveling over how accurately Barkow captured his characters through dialogue. Most reviews are subjective, but if there is one thing that cannot be argued with; it is that Barkow's writing is superb.

Because the stories are so short, it is hard to summarize them without giving it all away, so I will just point out a few of my favorites. I really liked the cover story In Sickness and in Hell, which was truly a gem in regard to dialogue and plot twist. I also enjoyed Forgive Me, Father, which included a different perspective on a well known and traditional bible story. The Definition was creepy and fun and very short and left me thinking about and re-reading the plot twist.

Finally, I enjoyed the theme of change that ran through the entire book. In Jen,Now, Barkow explores how people grow and change and that sometimes we love the image of a person, a past person, that can no longer exist. This theme resonates throughout the stories and Barkow introduces a fresh perspective on change and how it effects our relationships with ourselves and others.

Overall, I really enjoyed this whole collection. I don't know how many other stories Barkow has written, but although the stories were distinct, they include the same themes and worked well together in a compilation. This is not a book that I would have picked up on my own, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to read and review it.

Happy Reading!

*Full disclaimer, I went to high school with Stefan and he is my brother-in-law's best friend. He asked to to read and review his book and gave me a free copy. I tried very hard not to let that influence my review, but I do think it is super cool to know someone with a published book!

The Hit by Melvin Burgess

2014-03-25T07:58:00.003-07:00

Book: The Hit (Take it. Live it. Do it)

Author: Melvin Burgess

Grade: D

Recommended To: I would only read this book if I had one book left to read to achieve my Goodreads goal and I didn't have any other book options.

I got The Hit from my friend who received an Advance Reader Copy on Goodreads.

The Hit is completely misdirected. It had a decent premise, but it fails to deliver on that premise which is disappointing but unsurprising. With a cover like that, no one thought that this was going to be a "bestseller." Also, no one believes that Mr. Burgess' first book, apparently titled Junk, was also a bestseller.

So, the cover ain't doing it for me. The content was even worse. This book features a drug called Death which gives the person one week to live, but that week is the best week of the person's life. The main character, I've already forgotten his name, takes the drug and then uses it to convince his girlfriend to sleep with him. Death apparently also makes the user lose all moral sense. They also steal somethings, drive a fast car, and then she gets kidnapped. Then it starts to get really weird because naturally the people that take Death regret it and start riots because they have "nothing left to lose."

The book gets really crazy with the introduction of an underground terrorist cell that kidnaps people and manufactures fake Death which is loosely related to a crazy guy who likes to paralyze people at the C4 vertebrae, but can't get it right. WTF am I writing?!

I'm sure you can already tell that this book ain't great. The plot is incredibly weak, the characters are stupid (no really, they are actually dumb), and this book did not deliver on whatever weak promises it plied me with. This book gets a D instead of an F because it was short and I didn't have to suffer reading it for very long and because the premise on the back cover was intriguing.

Melvin, this is a miss.

Happy Reading!!

The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer

2014-03-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Books: The Clifton Chronicles. There are four books in the series, the newest was just released and I finished it in three days.

Author: Jeffrey Archer

Grade: Variable: From B+ to C+

Recommended To: Fans of British writing.

I picked up the first three books of the Clifton Chronicles on Amazon for two bucks apiece. I hadn't heard of Jeffrey Archer before and after reading the first book, I blazed through the rest. I couldn't possibly parse out the stories for complete reviews of each book now, so I am combining them all into one review. I thought these books were delightful! The grades do not necessarily reflect how much I liked reading this books, but let me explain.

This is a British family saga story. It is about Harry Clifton and his life from boyhood at an English prep school on a choral scholarship to his eventual adult life as a married man with children. Then, the story branches out and includes the lives of his best friend Giles, his mother, his children, his wife's siblings, etc. Each family member is devoted to a few chapters that eventually advance the story. Occasionally the chapters retell a portion of the story from a different perspective.

First, these books cannot be described as well-written. But, there is a vast difference between passable writing, a literary genius, and books that are just plain terrible. Archer's series is an example of the first. These books are not literary works, but Archer can put together a sentence and he can keep a story moving. Think Daniel Silva or John Grisham. These authors do not write prize winning literature, but their writing is decent enough so that I keep buying.

Second, is Archer writing something totally new and fresh? Probably not. But, his characters get themselves into scraps and scrapes and come out somewhat fresh and changed, which can't be said for some other writers (AHEM, Veronica Roth). I know, I know, you want to know why on earth I like these books since I'm usually the most critical of flat characters and overdone plots. But, I found the situations interesting. The books keep pace very well. They don't lag or drag. The reader knows exactly who to root for at all times, so the reading is fast and easy.

Third, although Archer uses some of the same literary devices again and again, I oddly wasn't bothered. Just about the only device in Archer's arsenal is the cliffhanger. Almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger. I admit, it is repetitive, but the story kept moving and Archer resolves almost all of the cliffhangers by the next chapter or book. Instead of becoming irritating, I found the cliffhangers endearing and a minor hurdle for the sake of the story.

Ultimately, these books kept my attention and made me laugh. For example, there is one scene in the most recent book where the wife of one of the "bad" characters leaves her husband and takes only the left shoe of all of his shoes. That's hilarious! I found myself chuckling out loud several times while reading these books because of the crazy situations that the characters find themselves in and because of the revenge exacted.

Are these the best books ever written? No, of course not. But, are they fun, lighthearted, easy reads? Yes! And I absolutely recommend them for summer reading.

Happy Reading!

The Boys in the Boat by Danial James Brown

2014-03-16T17:05:00.001-07:00

Book: The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Olympics.

Author: Daniel James Brown

Grade: A

Recommended to: Everyone. This is a non-fiction must read.

I can't say enough good things about this book. The Boys in the Boat is the story of the Washington team that rowed their way to victory at the 1936 Olympics. The story is primarily told from the viewpoint of Joe Rantz, one of the boys in the boat.

I know nothing about rowing. And, I always thought that rowing was one of those sports for eastern uppity colleges. This book taught me a lot about rowing without being boring, the fatal flaw of non-fiction writing.

This story is very American. It is a book of struggle, perseverance, and it is the exact opposite of my perception of rowing. The Washington boys all came from rough beginnings. They worked long hours at crappy jobs to pay for college, aced their classes in order to stay on the rowing team, and rowed in freezing rain, snow, and ice to become the world champions. That sounds like a spoiler, but it isn't. There's zero chance that Mr. Brown would have written about these boys if they had failed to make it to the Olympics.

One of the best parts of this book is Mr. Brown's ability to capture the suspense of a rowing race. He is inside the head of the coxswain and the rowers. He writes as though the reader is there listening to the race on the radio or watching on television. It is an incredibly talent that is particularly useful in sports stories, especially racing sports. I couldn't put this book down, especially during a race sequence.

The book also included short chapters about the enormous propaganda campaign waged by Hitler, Goebbels, and a filmmaker that I hadn't heard of, Leni Riefenstahl, who created an entire Olympics to fool the world into believing that Germany was peaceful. Those portions of the story were also extremely well written.

In my opinion, this book rivals the big non-fiction thrillers, Unbroken and The Devil in the White City. This book is at least equal in quality and caliber, if not better. I absolutely recommend it to everyone looking for a good sports story

I'm sorry for the massive delay in posts and updates. I'm going to write a bunch of posts tonight and slowly release them, so hopefully I don't get behind again! We have been very busy with the house and work has picked up. So, I'm definitely going to make this blog a priority again!

Let me know what you think of The Boys in the Boat and Happy Reading!

The Curiosity by Stephen Kiernan

2014-01-29T09:39:00.004-08:00

Book: The Curiosity

Author: Stephen P. Kiernan

Grade: C

Recommended To: Not sure, this book too me a very long time to get into and the ended was dissatisfying.

This book was okay, not good, not great, just okay. It took an incredibly long time to get started and although the science portions were interesting, those were limited by the eventual and very strange love story that occurred between two of the main characters.

The premise of the story is decent. Jeremiah Rice is found cryogenically frozen in an iceburg in the arctic circle. A scientist, speaking only in second person (Why? Why!), brings the man back to life and then basically has no idea what to do with this person. There is a lot of moral ambiguity that was interesting, but could have been better written. There are protesters, of course, that are only portrayed as right wing crazies, which seems disingenuous because probably a lot of people would have moral concerns about reviving a man from the 1800s.

Some of the characters are overwhelmingly flat. One of the characters, the news reporter that has the exclusive on the reanimation is exceedingly terrible. So much so that I found myself skipping large chunks of his narrative because hey, its not like he was going to change in the next 20 swipes.

The love story is also ridiculous. The one female scientist who has apparently worked her entire life to obtain this very lucrative position falls in love with the reanimated man, Jeremiah. So, she takes him around to grocery stores, suit shops, and various places in Boston to acquaint him with life in the 21st Century. Over and over he's amazed that you can buy oranges in stores. Nobody cares, dude. Also, they have the most awkward non-conversations about sex ever. It is like watching this scene from 90 Day Fiance when Mike thinks that any girl other than this mail order bride from Russia wants to get with him. Awkward!

So, I give this book a C for a decent plot line, generally and terrible execution. You should save yourself the 10 days that it will take you to finish this book. It ain't worth it.

Happy Reading.

Also, I note that this is my first review since New Year's Day. Lawrd. I need to pick up the reading pace in 2014!

Happy 2014!

2014-01-01T09:19:00.002-08:00

Happy New Year!!

I love the New Year. It is so fun to reflect and look back on the changes of the previous year and to make plans for the year ahead. I try to do this on my birthday also, so really, it happens twice a year!

2013 was a great year for reading! I read 76 books this year and surpassed my Goodreads goal by a full 11 books. I'm thrilled and I can attribute that to taking a hour long round trip train ride every day. Without that, my reading time would be seriously limited.

In 2013, I read 75 books, which accounted for 29,370 pages (thanks Goodreads, I didn't count them all!). My blog also hit 20,000 hits in November and that was AWESOME! Thanks everyone for reading and then coming back for more. I am humbled.

Longest Book: It by Stephen King at slightly over 1000 pages. And each page was awesome!

Shortest Book: Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich. This book literally took me 2 hours.

Most Disappointing Book: Divergent by Veronica Roth and subsequently Insurgent. These books were so hyped up and were so so bad.

Most Rewarding Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I cried at the end and I almost never do that unless the book is extra amazing.

Worst Book: The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson. Also wins the award for most racist.

Best Non-Fiction: We Band of Angels by Elizabeth Norman. I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and it was awesome! It won out of the 14 non-fiction books that I read this year. I didn't realize that I read so many! That's 18%!

Funniest Book: I Am Not Myself These Days and The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer Purcell. These are two different books, but they were both hilarious and I love love love these goat farmers.

Favorite Book: Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks. This is a toss up with The Book Thief and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger which was just phenomenally good. But Imaginary Friend was by far the most original and well-written book that I read this year.

I also loved Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. That book wounded my soul and it took me days to recover. You should absolutely read it. I'll probably blog about it eventually because it was so lovely.

Best Rated on Goodreads: The Boy Who Said No by Patti Sheehy. This book is rated at 4.49. I gave it four stars and I'm surprised by this. I liked this book, but the best rated? Maybe you should read it.

Also surprising is that The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom is so well rated. That book sucked.

Worst Rated on Goodreads: The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli. I'm less surprised by this one. I thought this book was a hot mess.

I set some goals for 2013 and here's how they panned out:

1. Read 65 books in 2013. Check! 76 books!

2. Finish an entire book series. No dice on this one. I think I was referring to the Kinsey Milhone alphabet series and I absolutely did not finish it. Those books are repetitive, yo. I also failed to finish the Divergent series and the Outlander series. So, this one was a big fail.

3. Update this blog 1/week. That's 52 updates. Also a fail. I posted exactly 27 times in 2013, which interestingly was the same number of times as 2012, so at least I didn't backtrack.

4. Buy a house. CHECK! We bought a house! But, most of my books are still in boxes in the basement waiting to be unpacked 9 months later because we are renovating and I didn't want to pack up all that shit a second time. Because let's be honest, books are heavy!

I was only 50% successful on my goals for 2013, except really, buying a house? That's a million percent success. Here are my goals for 2014:

1. Read 70 books. I think 76 might have been a fluke and 70 seems manageable.
2. Alternatively, read 30,000 pages. I keep getting really close to 30,000. This year I am only 640 away!
3. Post to this blog 30 times. Let's get out of this 27 slump nice and easy.

4. Continue my One-Line a day journal. I love keeping records of my day to day and I hope this journal will help me do it.

Do you have any reading goals for 2014?

Happy 2014!! I hope your year is full of life, love, laughter and fabulous books.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

2013-12-30T10:41:00.003-08:00

Book: The Goldfinch

Author: Donna Tartt

Grade: B -

Recommended To: Artists, Mystery Fans, Bird Watchers.

The Goldfinch was a Kindle Deal in the middle of December when Amazon put a bunch of great books from 2013 on a deep discount. It was a good book and although it was 700 pages, and an unknown number of Kindle swipes, I finished it in four days.

The Goldfinch is a rambling sort of novel that follows Theo, the main character, from 13-30 and follows his life after the loss of his mother in a terrorist attack that Theo survives. When Theo escapes the art museum that was attacked he takes a very small and very famous painting, The Goldfinch. The painting nearly becomes a character in the book and as the story develops the painting is a recurring theme and presence in the novel. The book follow Theo's life through Manhattan, Las Vegas, and then back to New York over approximately 15 years of his life.

I could not give this book a higher rating than a B- despite all of the five star and A+ review that this book got. The book is good. It is entertaining for the first 3/4 and then in the last 100 pages or so becomes more of an art lesson and a lesson about life than a fictional novel. Those last 100 swipes made it impossible for me to give the book a higher than average grade.

The writing by Donna Tartt is without question, very beautiful. She creates imagery with her writing that is nearly impossible to find. She also has an incredible grasp of dialogue, she can write as an upper class Manhattanite, a Ukrainian teenager, and an antique collector. But, although Ms. Tartt was born and raised in Mississippi and her story largely takes place in New York City, she writes as though her story takes place in Europe. She calls the bathroom the loo, stores are shops, and the language generally feels like something J.K. Rowling would write. This bothered me because it felt disingenuous from the lead character and gritty New York feel of the novel.

Also, the last 100 pages. Oof. I didn't take an art history class, but at least half of those pages are a description of The Goldfinch painting (boring, although I do like birds and would like a copy of the painting for my house) and the other 50% of the pages are a summary of the lessons that Theo learned over the course of the novel. These pages were such a sharp contrast from the author's ability to show instead of tell that the pages felt tacked on and I found myself rolling my eyes a bit.
Otherwise, this book was very good. The story had a lot of twists and turns that kept coming and it kept my attention for the first 3/4 of the book. Plus, I keep thinking about some of the things that happened. That's the real sign of a good read.

I was also able to finish it in record time because the story kept moving and it brought my books read to 75 for the year! This surpasses my old record of 73 books and it trounced my goal of 65 books. I have one more book in the works for this year and it is going very quickly, so I hope that I am able to finish it before the new year. I'll post a New Year 2014 update in the coming days.

Happy Reading!

We Band of Angels by Elizabeth Norman

2013-12-01T05:27:00.001-08:00

Book: We Band of Angels

Author: Elizabeth Norman

Grade: B+

Recommended To: Historians.

I got this book for free on Goodreads as a giveaway. That, of course, does not influence the grade or the review that I give this book. But, publishers who give away books on Goodreads do encourage reviews.

I also can't believe that I still have a full day off from work. This four-day Thanksgiving weekend had done wonders for my life outlook.

I really liked this book. This book tells the story of a group of Army and Navy nurses stationed in the Philippines during World War II. This was a cushy assignment until the Japaneses bombed Pearl Harbor and began attacking the Philippines. The Army and Navy nurses retreated to the Bataan Peninsula and then provided care to the wounded and sick in deplorable conditions. Soon, the women were captured along with their units and sent to an interment camp for the duration of the war where they endured starvation, boredom, illness, and fear.

This book was interesting because I've read almost nothing about the Pacific Theater during WWII, with the exception of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, which tells a very different story about a POW camp.

We Band of Angels is excellent because it is told from the perspective of many different nurses and includes lots of detail about the conditions of the camp and hospitals and includes excerpts from interviews and journals of the woman that served. It is also excellent because it follows the women after they leave the Philippines and shows how they were used by the American government for propaganda purposes and then dropped when they were no longer needed. Interestingly, the last surviving nurse died early in 2013 and the final chapter memorializes her life after her return from war.

I liked this book because it kept my attention. I don't read a lot of historical books because they often taken me a long time to get into and they push my reading goals off schedule. I didn't notice that in We Band of Angels, this book was well-paced, never boring, and provided very interesting insight into a part of history that I had never considered.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking for a fairly quick historical read on a topic that is little explored.

Happy Reading!!

The Circle by Dave Eggers

2013-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

Book: The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Grade: B

Recommended to: Everyone can gain something from this book.

The Circle was recommended to me by a sorority sister via Facebook. I love that, btw. I love getting recommendations from people that I haven't seen in a year or two and then the books turn out to be great. The Circle is one of those books that I loved to hate. I thought the characters were solid if somewhat flat, the story was fast moving, and Dave Eggers made his point.

This book starts by following Mae Holland through her first day of work at The Circle. A company that the reader eventually finds out is responsible for taking over the internet. The Circle hires only the youngest and brightest up and coming talent and Mae was recommended for a position there from her college roommate, Annie. Mae starts off in customer control where she answers consumer complaints and questions and eventually becomes a spokes person for the company.

The story evolves in such a way that small privacy infringements are explained away under the guise of making people more safe, or are explained as sharing information with those that cannot obtain the information and experience for themselves. For example, the leader of The Circle has a child with Cerebral Palsy and he insists that others share their experiences through video so that his son can see parts of the world that never would be possible with his disability.

Then of course the small, somewhat innocuous privacy infringements become more serious all under the overarching idea of safety and sharing information. One worker at The Circle wants to implant a tracking device into all children so that they can be kept safe from kidnappers. That idea evolves into tracking and profiling people with criminal backgrounds so that the "police can keep us all safe." See where I'm going with this? I finished this book at 4:30 in the morning and kept saying aloud "No, no. You can't do that. What about the Fourth Amendment? What about the Constitution!?"

I liked this book. I have some criticism of the main character because she just accepted everything that the her boss at The Circle said without question, presumably because she did not want to lose her job. But, there were some things that were inconsistent. For example, she was upset that another employee made a sex tape of her, but then decided to go "transparent" and video tape her entire life. It is all about permission, I suppose, which opens up an entirely new commentary.

The discussions that I've had about this book make it well worth the two days I spent reading it. I really enjoyed the book and the social commentary that Dave Eggers provides in an increasingly social media saturated world. I absolutely recommend this book a new 1984-esq novel that is relevant today.

Happy Reading!!

HALLELUJAH!!

2013-11-12T08:25:00.004-08:00

HOLLA!!!!

That's right! I did it! I read 65 books this year and it is only November 12th! This is very exciting stuff, especially because last year I didn't make my goal. I contribute this to living further away and having a longer train ride. Living in DG gives me a full hour on the train to read and enabled me to complete my goal.

I also just finished The Circle which deserves a review all to itself. So, check back for that update coming this week!

Happy Reading.

The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster

2013-11-10T04:50:00.001-08:00

Book: The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING or Why I'm Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog.

Author: Jen Lancaster

Grade: C -

Recommended To: Previous Lancaster Fans

Jen Lancaster was recommended to me by at least three people. They told me that she was hilariously funny and that I would love her books. So, I suggested that my book club read her newest book for November and the hostess for this month took me up on it. I had high expectations for this book but they were not met.

Lancaster has written a series of memoirs about her daily life. In this one, she writes about living within the Tao of Martha Stewart and attempting to get organized, throw parties like Martha, and create a green space that would make Martha proud. I thought Lancaster was mostly irritating and the very very few funny parts in this book were tempered by her story telling ability which is somewhat poor.

First, I don't like Lancaster as a person. She lives in Lake Forest, by far the ritziest of the Northshore suburbs. She has gardeners, cleaners, she dry cleans her table linens (which I have never heard of before), she shops exclusively at Williams - Sonoma, and she complains. Holy Hell, she complains and complains and complains. Pro Tip: Maybe you shouldn't have a garden if you don't like dirt and earthworms!! Or, suck it up and pay someone to do it all for you (and stop complaining about the money, you clearly make enough because you live in Lake Forest). It is hard to like a book, especially a memoir, when you don't like the person. It also bothered me so much that she cut down a 100 year old tree because she though it was ugly. It was painful when she ~~chopped it down~~ paid someone to cut it down. Ouch.

Second, I did not find Lancaster's writing style particularly humorous. I haven't read her other books, but she put a duvet cover on a bed for about 3% of this book (kindle edition). That isn't interesting. She organized a desk drawer for 4%. Even the funniest part of that chapter, which is when she found shards of broken wine glass in the drawer, is tempered by the fact that she writes about it for 4% of the book. Further, some of these scenarios could have been funny but for Lancaster's writing style which came off as bitchy instead of humble. I don't get the impression that Jen is also laughing and that is the distinction between a good humor writer and a great one. She still seems mad that she sat in a pile of fire ants, one full book later. I don't find that funny.

Third, living like Martha Stewart is hard, if not impossible. I looked at a lot of Martha's ideas when planning my wedding and then my dear, sweet, bridesmaids were gluing 1/4 inch green leaves on my handmade wedding invitations. Sorry you guys. The thing you have to realize about Martha is that she isn't doing these things herself. She has endless teams of gardeners, party planners, caterers, set up and tear down staff, cleaning crews etc. She might come up with the idea, but she ain't ironing her own table linens, okay?

The best part of this book was Lancaster's writing about Maisy. Her beloved pitbull. Her writing was superb during these chapters and I can empathize with someone would would literally do anything for their pet. There is almost nothing I wouldn't do for out cat Moe and I totally get that Lancaster would make a pork roast and then hand feed it to her dog. I totally understand that she would pay thousands for pet surgery and chemotherapy because I would do the exact same thing. The real Lancaster comes through in these pages and it reflects because the writing isn't forced.

After reading this book and mostly disliking it, I wondered what on Earth I was missing. Three people from three separate stages of my life recommended Lancaster, so I started looking up her other books and those have gotten far far better reviews than The Tao of Martha. In fact, the Tao is getting very very few five star reviews on Goodreads and has an abundance of two and three star reviews. Apparently Lancaster was much much funnier when she was poor; now that she's made it, she's struggling for material, according to those loyal fans.

So, although I did not like this particular Lancaster book, I likely will try another of her earlier memoirs. Thank you for the recommendation, friends!

Happy Reading!

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks

2013-11-04T12:16:00.001-08:00

Book: Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend

Author: Matthew Dicks

Grade: A

Recommended To: Everyone. This book was so good!

I finished Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend in one day. It was that good. This book is written from the perspective of the imaginary friend of a boy with Asperger's. This book is positive, sad, happy, and wonderful all at once. It was recommended to my by a sorority sister and I got it at the library for free and now I am recommending it to everyone I know.

Here's the thing about reviewing books. As I read, I start to craft a review in my head, particularly if a book is very good or very bad. The average reviews are hard to write because I'm not passionate one way or another about those books. While reading, it is hard not to compare books. Books that I thought were A material move lower on the list when I read a book that I consider to be better and fully qualify for the A grade. This makes my grading very subjective because I end up comparing books that are not in the same category. Was this book an A? Yes. Absolutely. Will this book continue to be an A if I read something even more phenomenal and unique? I don't know. I doubt that I will read anything else this good this year.

If you can't tell from that paragraph, I really liked this book. It was sweet, smart and funny. It was also unique and interesting. It is told from the perspective of an imaginary friend of Max, a child with Asperger's, who has trouble making friends and communicating. It was a lovely little story of how this imaginary friend must put aside his own selfishness to save his "real" friend.

This story didn't strike me as far fetched. I know, I know, how can a book about an imaginary friend be realistic, but Max was real and deep. His actions were those of a child with Asperger's and the author did a very good job of showing instead of telling. I didn't know Max's condition had a name until I read the inside front cover. I appreciate authors that can do this and Matthew Dicks is no exception. Apparently he has other books and I intend to check those out too, if they are half as good as Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, then they will be worth the read.

You, reader of this blog, should absolutely read this book. Happy Reading!

The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

2013-10-21T10:08:00.001-07:00

Book: The Night Ranger

Author: Alex Berenson

Grade: D+

Recommended To: I don't know. I didn't really like this book, but you might if you like flat objectified female characters and racist speech patterns.

The Night Ranger is Alex Berenson's seventh John Wells book. You can tell that Berenson cranks out two books a year in this series because The Night Ranger needed more substance, a good edit, and some help from a female perspective to make it a passable read. I just bought it because it was two dollars and since that's the price of a Candy Crush Candy Hammer, it seemed worth it at 6:00 AM, which is when I make all of my kindle daily deal purchases.

I also used to follow Alex Berenson on Facebook but I deleted him after he said he didn't like the finale of Breaking Bad. Um, hello? The most perfect finale of all finales? I can't deal with that mojo on my facebook feed, so he got deleted. I like to think that his poor and inaccurate opinion about Walt and my favorite series of all time did not have an effect on my review of this book, but it probably did.

After searching my own blog, it appears that I've reviewed quite a few Wells novels here, here, and here. They all seem to have the same theme, a quick and dirty read that should be over as fast as possible. These reviews are all from two years ago and some of the exact things I was going to write in this review, I've already written, so now I have to come up with something original, unlike Berenson who uses the same formula over and over to write crap.

In this book four volunteers are kidnapped in Africa apparently through some conspiracy with the lead of the aid agency to sell more of his books. If this seems like a poor explanation, it is, because it is never explained. Never.

Berenson's books rarely have strong female characters and this book was no exception. One of the point of view characters is basically just described as "beautiful" and "slutty" and "dumb." She has no other characteristics despite the fact that she is volunteering for three months in Africa, has family that cares about her, and has graduated college. The other female lead (if you can even call it a lead) is a woman who is described just as ugly, mean, and Irish. I will leave that to you to figure out how absolutely ridiculous it is that the leader of the African refugee camp for this particular charity has no other characteristics except that she is ugly and mean. Or why her appearance matters AT ALL.

There are many Somali and Kenyan characters in this book because it takes place in Kenya and Somalia. These characters frequently have conversations in this dumbed down patois that makes it sound like they are struggling third graders learning English for the first time. Are you kidding me? Wouldn't these people be fluent in their native language, SOMALI, which is what they would be speaking in SOMALIA? Christ. I don't know why it is that everyone who isn't American is automatically stupid and cannot speak in full sentences. It is unrealistic, it is asinine, and it is offensive. I just changed the grade from a C to a D+ because now I'm mad all over again about this shit.

Okay, that's all I have to say about this except if my 6:00 AM self decides to buy another Alex Berenson book for cheap, I hope my Noon self blocks the Amazon transaction.

Happy Reading.

The Spymistress by Jennifier Chiaverini

2013-10-19T10:12:00.002-07:00

Book: The Spymistress

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini

Grade: A

Recommended to: Civil War Fans, CIA Agents, Mistresses

The Spymistress is the account of Elizabeth Van Lew, a southern lady who spied for the North during the Civil War. This book is historical fiction and excellent. I cannot say enough good things about this book. I haven't read a Civil War book in a long time, probably since The Last Silk Dress which I read when I was about 10 and then read over the over again because it was so good. Speaking of, I really should find it at my parent's house and read it a 50th time at the ripe old age of 28. I digress.

Elizabeth Van Lew first defies the Confederacy by taking meals and gifts to the Union prisoners of war in Richmond. She befriends several of them and then smuggles out information and notes to send North. She then creates a vast spy network of Union loyalists and uses the network to smuggle out escaped prisoners, information about the Confederacy and her own advice on where the Union should strike first.

Initially, I thought this book was about a fictional character in a historical setting. Much like some historical fiction novels that create a character and then place that character in a historical setting. That is not the case with The Spymistress. About half way through the book, I read the epilogue and discovered the Elizabeth Van Lew was a real person! She lived in Richmond during the Civil War and Jennifer Chaiverini painstakingly went through her letters, journals and notes to discover her actions as a spy for the Union during the Civil War. It was a magnificent find and it made me respect the author and Elizabeth Van Lew much more.

I also really enjoyed this book because it gave a lot of detail about how poorly the Union prisoners were treated during their imprisonment. I haven't read a book about Civil War prisoners before and I liked learning about it.

I absolutely recommend this book as an excellent mostly historical account of the lives of Miss. Van Lew and her family and friends.

Happy Reading!!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

2013-10-15T07:22:00.003-07:00

Book: Life After Life

Author: Kate Atkinson

Grade: B -

Recommended To: Philosophers.

I got this book at the library and I am continually amazed at the selection of new books that are available at the library. In Chicago, I was on the waiting list for popular books for months and Downers Grove has lots of new and popular books available all the time.

It is hard to describe Life After Life, which is probably why the dustcover did such a poor job. This is a book about Ursula, a girl who is reincarnated over and over again. In each life, she gets flashes of deja vu, although she cannot remember specific events from a past life, and these flashes occasionally encourage her to take a different course.

This book was a lot like Groundhog Day without Bill Murray, unfortunately. Ursula is born over and over again and then lives her life in approximately the same way with minor changes. For example, in the first story, she is raped by a friend of her brothers, this results in some of the most violent scenes of the book, which I believe were well done. After one of those violent scenes, she dies, and then in the next life, she has deja vu and fights off the brother's friend, thus changing the course of her life for good.

This book is conceptually interesting and is a fantastic pick for a book club that actually reads and discusses books. My book club does not do this, but sometimes we try. This month is The Tiger's Wife; if I finish it, I will let you know if we discussed it.

This book is thought provoking. What would happen if certain things in my life had gone differently. Or, what would happen if I had a chance to do things over again. I do not typically read books that require a lot of thought, but this book was compelling. The one complaint I have about this book was the length. It took Ursula a long time to get to her ultimate goal, which is revealed in the first chapter, but does not come full circle until the very end.

Happy Reading!

The Boy Who Said No by Patti Sheehy

2013-10-02T13:17:00.001-07:00

Book: The Boy Who Said No

Author: Patti Sheehy

Grade: B -

Recommended To: Cuban Refugees

This book is about young man who attempts to escape Communist Cuba shortly after Fidel's rise to power. This book also documented how boys over the age of fifteen were conscripted into military service and forced to support the Literary Campaign and Harvest Campaigns put forth by the Castro regime. And, get this! The book is a true story!

I have never read about book about life in Cuba before Castro's rise to power and the impact that Castro's revolution had. Most of the books I've read about Cuba are about escape from deplorable conditions by people who only lived under the Castro regime.

The main character in this book falls in love with a gorgeous girl and when she and her family escape to the United States, Frankie also attempts to leave. To do this, he must leave the army, hide for weeks and brave the open sea in a small fishing boat to get to freedom.

There were two peeves I had with this book. The first is the dialogue. The author clearly took liberties with the dialogue of characters and scenarios that Frankie was not a part of. Those parts may be close renderings of what happened, but we will never know for sure because the author only interviewed Frankie.

Second, you never find out what happens between Frankie and the hot girl! I read this book for two days hoping that he gets to America and is reunited with his love, only to read in the Epilogue that this is a "story for another time." What! That's the only reason why I was reading this! It was like the book just ended without a resolution. I was very disappointed and that bumped the grade of this book down from a B to a B-.

Even with the irritating bits, I recommend this book. It was a fresh perspective on life in Cuba, the programs imposed by Fidel and the risks of escape. I generally enjoyed it.

Happy Reading!!

Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

2013-09-26T07:36:00.004-07:00

Book: Five Days at Memorial

Author: Sheri Fink

Grade: B

Recommended To: Everyone who likes non-fiction

I found this book in the "Hot Reads" section of my library which just means that it is brand new and you can only check it out for two weeks instead of three weeks. Five Days at Memorial is not light-hearted. It is a well-researched behemoth that chronicles Memorial Hospital's experience during Hurricane Katrina.

The first half of the book is about the experiences of the nurses, doctors, patients and family members at Memorial during Katrina and after. The second half is about the grand jury indictment of Dr. Pou and two nurses who injected their patients with morphine and Versed to hasten their deaths.

This book was upsetting in a variety of ways. Memorial was unprepared for a disaster of Katrina's size, but it wasn't that unprepared. After the investigation started and all of the people at Memorial were evacuated, crews found days worth of food and water supplies and bottles of oxygen that were not used to assist patients. The most poignant part of this book was when the author explained that although many patients died during Katrina, some of the other hospitals only lost a few patients compared the the 40+ patients who died at Memorial.

In general, Memorial is a very fair book. No one party is painted as good or evil and the book is very multifaceted. Some may even say that this book is exhaustively researched, even down to the support letters that Dr. Pou received after she was indicted. I skipped some of those parts.

In all, this was a good, thorough read that painted a devastating picture of the choices faced by medical personnel during Katrina.

Happy Reading!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

2013-09-16T14:47:00.003-07:00

Book: Insurgent

Author: Veronica Roth

Grade: C-

Recommended To: I have no idea, teenagers?

Insurgent is the second book in the Divergent Series penned by Veronica Roth and loosely based in Chicago. I reviewed the first book Divergent on this blog and am writing the second review so quickly because these books take about 10 minutes to read.

There are SPOILERS in this review. So, approach with caution.

I have no idea what happened in this book. The relationships were bad, the motives were all wrong, and the twists and turns were seriously contrived. That said, I liked this book slightly more than Divergent, although my grades don't reflect that distinction. It is hard to remember why something was a C or a C-, days and weeks after finishing the book, which is why the grading on this blog is subjective.

In retrospect then, I liked Insurgent a bit better because my expectations were much lower. I already knew that the writing was bad and that the characters were flat. My expectations were met in that regard.

This opinion is going to be unpopular: Why don't Tris and this fool Four just break up? As far as I can tell, they have been dating for approximately 10 minutes. Much too soon to be having deep conversations and arguments about trust. And, if you don't trust someone after dating for 10 minutes, then it seems unlikely that you ever will, so just break up, and find someone else. The parts of the book about Tris and Four were not romantic, it is a relationship of convenience and cuddling and crap. I don't buy it.

Can I get some hands up from the people that hate the name Tobias? This guy has a friggin awesome nickname, Four, and is all emo-whiney "but I wanna be called Tobiaaaaasssss." Relax.

SPOILER:

The plot is still thin in Insurgent and many of the plot twists are ridiculous. It makes zero, none, nada, zippo sense that Peter would save Tris by giving her some serum that makes her appear dead. Allegedly he does it so that he isn't indebted to her anymore, but her dying would also make that debt moot and not put a gigantic target on his back. This doesn't make sense with the character development so far. I think Roth backed herself into a corner with this Tris-going-to-Erudite plot line and then didn't know how to get her out. Plus, why the hell is Peter in the upper echelon of Erudite if he defected to the Divergent? I am expected to believe that the ~~most boring~~ smartest faction would put a defector on the security team? No.

So, despite these fallicies, I found myself enjoying Insurgent more because I rolled my eyes fewer times while I read the book. That's the new standard of reading. The number of eye-rolls.

I am currently reading Five Days at Memorial and I have high hopes that a good non-fiction will put my reading agenda back on the right path.

Happy Reading!!

The White Princess by Philippa Gregory

2013-09-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

Book: The White Princess

Author: Phil Gregs

Grade: B

Recommended To: Phil Gregs fans!

This is the latest installment in the Cousin's War series of books that Philippa Gregory has written. It is hard to believe that there have been five books in this series so far. It seems like she just finished the Henry VIII series.

This book is the story of the parents of Henry VIII. Elizabeth is married to Henry Tudor, who took the throne from King Richard. Like all of Gregory's books, the female characters are the feature and the entire book is told from the perspective of Elizabeth, the York princess.

This book continues the mystery of the two lost princes, Richard and Edward, that was begun in The White Queen. Henry Tudor VII has captured the throne but is far from secure. He marries Elizabeth, in an attempt to join the two rival houses, but instead rumors of the lost boy prince Richard haunt Henry throughout his reign.

I thought this book was acceptable. It wasn't the best of the series and it wasn't the worst. The Lady of the Rivers, which I don't believe I reviewed on this blog was by far the worst. It took me months to finish that book.

This book moved quickly and was fun to read. It is true that it is repetitive, but at this point, I just assume that Gregory's books are going to repeat over and over again. She's a huge fan of telling the reader the entire title for a person every time that person is referenced. At least 1000 words could have been saved by limiting My Lady the King's Mother to just Mother or Crazy, for example. So, if you are willing to overlook that, this story was good and it kept my attention. Plus, I find the mystery surrounding the lost Tower princes to be fascinating especially because no one knows for sure what happened to them.

In other news, I am FOUR books ahead of schedule on my read-65-books-in-a-year Goodreads challenge. In the three years that I've done the challenge, I don't think I've ever been that far ahead of schedule. Maybe I'll hit 70 this year!

I definitely recommend this book to the hard-core Gregory fans out there. You will not be disappointed.

Happy Reading!!

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

2013-08-28T11:53:00.001-07:00

Book: The Kitchen House

Author: Kathleen Grissom

Grade: C-

Recommended to: perpetrators of stereotypes.

"Book Club Favorite" is a sure sell when a book it trying to get me to read it. I love my book club, I love favorites, and I love books. What I didn't love was The Kitchen House. This book sucked a bag of donkey dicks. Maybe just a small lunch sack, but still, a whole bag.

The Kitchen House is Kathleen Grissom's first book and you can really tell. She had such a good idea for the plot. A young white Irish girl is indentured to a plantation owner and works in the kitchen with the house slaves. There are also quarters slaves who work in the fields, but these do not feature prominently. The book follows Lavinia's whole life with short chapters from Lavinia's childhood caretaker, Belle.

Here are my issues with the book:

First, the dialogue. The only characters that speak in this book are the black characters and their speech is so sterotypically "slave speech" that it was distracting and disgusting. When a white character is involved, they rarely speak; instead its just narrative that describes what the white people are doing. It was so weird. Even Belle, the slave that could read, and write spoke in this terrible southern dialect that was so awfully contrived that I cringed while reading it. It was not convincing and not good.

Second, a bad thing happens to the at least one of the characters in this book every 15 pages or so. The book is 300 plus pages which means there are 20 disastrous events that take place in the book. It was exhausting. It is absolutely true that horrible things happened on plantations all the time, but it felt like this author was just going for shock value instead of historical accuracy and all of these terrible events made me want the book to be over.

Third, the romances in this book are horrible. It cannot be true that there was no communication in 1806. One person loves another person, but they think that person loves someone else, so they marry a third person and really that third person is the secret brother of the next person. Why can't they just open their mouths and say what they are frigging thinking for once? How hard is it to say, "yeah I really like him, but I think he is the father of my pseudo-mother's baby, so I feel that that would be inappropriate." Do you know how much time that would save? About 100 pages, easy.

Number three is actually one of my pet peeves in books. Communication failure is not an effective plot device. It is a device used in crappy romance novels that they sell for 2 bucks at walmart, it is not the stuff of well-written books.

Fourth, the short chapters from Belle were strange. They were all about two pages and didn't seem to add much to the story except to give the reader information that they could never have gotten from Lavinia's perspective. Although that information was valuable, a third person narrative account with good dialogue would have served the same purpose and likely would have turned out better.

This book got a C- because it had lots of potential. I hadn't read something before about indentured servitude and that's why I picked it up. Unfortunately there was very little about the history of indentured servitude in this book.

So, read at your own risk I guess. Yet another below average review for this blog, but I have to admit they are much more fun to write!

Happy Reading!

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

2013-08-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

Book: Sharp Objects

Author: Gillian Flynn

Grade: B

Recommended To: Gillian Flynn Lovers.

Nearly everyone has read Gone Girl, but Gillian Flynn wrote two books, Sharp Objects and Dark Places before she became famous for Gone Girl and in my opinion both are slightly better that Gone Girl.

In Sharp Objects, Camille is a news reporter and is instructed by her editor to go back to her home town to investigate and break the story on two child murders that are suspiciously similar. She does so, only to confront her frightening mother, half sister and complacent step father. Much of the book is about Camille confronting her past and childhood experiences in a place that she hasn't returned to since leaving for the big city (Chicago).

I know that everyone thinks that Gone Girl was excellent and it was. But I am of the opinion that Dark Places and Sharp Objects were better than Gone Girl. Here's why:

Camille is a likable character. She's seriously flawed and has a strange cutting habit, but deep down, she's a good person. You root for Camille. That was not the case in Gone Girl; once that book was done twisting and turning you hate everyone and if you don't then maybe you were reading a different book. I have trouble reading books where all of the characters don't have a single good characteristic. See Jonathan Franzen.

This book has its own unique share of twists and turns which kept the story moving. I finished this book in one day on the plane ride home from Colorado and it was well worth the time spent. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a dark, twisted read that Gillian Flynn has become known for.

Happy Reading!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2013-08-19T13:02:00.001-07:00

Book: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Grade: A

Recommended To: Everyone. Could be a book for teenagers since I got it off the "Hot Reads for Teenagers" shelf at the library.

I have been writing a lot of bad reviews lately. And I started to wonder, am I reading bad books? Or, am I reading an assortment of books and it is just much much more fun to write about the bad ones. In the case of The Book Thief, the latter is true. For the first time since 2011 when I began tracking my book read goals and progress on Goodreads, I am actually ahead of schedule to finish 65 books this year. That's especially exciting because I am going on a week long cruise vacation where I expect to do a lot of reading and relaxing. I might actually crush this goal.

So, since I only review the bad books and who wants to be told to stay away from things instead of what they should read, here is a good review:

The Book Thief was excellent. It is written from the perspective of death, which makes this book very unique and interesting and tell the story of Liesel whose mother and brother die and she is given to a German family for adoption or possibly foster care. It isn't quite clear. This book is about Liesel's life growing up as a German girl in a small town outside Munich during World War II.

I liked this book because I don't believe I've read a single book from the perspective of an average German family stranded in Germany during WWII. They suffer bombings, food shortages, lack of work, and suffering at the hands of the Nazi Party members in their small town. Much of the book was about small events in Liesel's life that made a big impact on her life and relationships. These portions were very well done and the book didn't slow down because of seemingly small events.

The book is especially interesting because of the perspective of Death. The theme that death is indiscriminate is very good, particularly because good and evil are so sterotypically portrayed in novels about World War II.

I cried at the end of this book and basically if I cry and it isn't from anger or frustration, then the book gets five stars. I cry at commercials, television, movies, all the time (that makes me sound crazy, but there are some really powerful commercials out there!). I read a lot and for some reason, I rarely cry over books. This book was so beautiful and the writing was so good that I couldn't help but weep that it was over.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking for a powerful read but prepare yourself for a wide range of emotions while reading. Happy Reading!!